Friday, December 14, 2007

The apex body in the US for granting recognition to health science courses on Thursday gave its approval to the system of evaluating medical education in India. The US National Committee on Accreditation, an organisation responsible for foreign accreditation, has granted parity to parameters set by the Medical Council of India (MCI) for health science courses including the MBBS programme. However, this parity does not give students or doctors automatic passage to the US or any other country, said Hemant Patel, president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. It only means that the standards of education here will be treated on par with those in the US, said Patel. The parity status has been given on six parameters: curriculum, teaching, method of evaluation, extension, research and impact of education proc-esses. Doctors at the AIIMS, which was a few months ago embroiled in a controversy over issuance of degrees to students who wanted to go abroad for further studies, said the recognition was long overdue. "Indian medical courses are rigorous and one of the most lengthy in the world. That's why Indian doctors do so well abroad," said Dr Kumar Harsh, president resident doctors' association (RDA). "Giving parity to the Indian medical courses is a matter of great pride for doctors and academics alike. More than receiving it as a move that will facilitate the movement of students, Indian medical fraternity should celebrate it as a day when the quality of Indian higher education was recognised the world over,'' said Dr A K Aggarwal, dean, Maulana Azad Medical College. "The parity means that quality medical undergraduate education in India is as good as the one in the US. But this doesn't give them an automatic passage to the US or any other country. We also hope that the parity will mean that students from abroad will now consider coming to India for medical education which is cheaper in our country,'' said an officer at MCI.